[rhombus]

I wasn't pleased with the continuation of Detente either. This legitimized the Soviet Union with the assumption that we had to live with them. In fact it might even be argued that the foreign policy of Nixon-Ford set up many of the Carter's disastrous bumbling. The Soviets were certainly not contained when they marched into Afghanistan and who in the Nixon and Ford administration foresaw what happened in Iran during Carter's watch?

[wideawake]

You make some strong points.

Detente was a foreign policy disaster - appeasement under another name. That policy showed a complete lack of world-historical vision.

The domestic madness of price controls, government kowtowing to the AFL-CIO and the Republican expansion of LBJ's already disgustingly bloated and inherently immoral social programs is also unthinkable in a post-Reagan world.

[21stCenturyFreeThinker]

I wasn't pleased with the continuation of Detente either. This legitimized the Soviet Union with the assumption that we had to live with them.

I could go either way on this, but a strong case can be made for Detente. Pure Communism is a system that can't sustain itself for long. Even China has been moving to a market based economy. Letting time run its course helped it to implode economically from within. At the same time Nixon was splitting China away from the Soviets and forced them to think about their eastern border. Divide and conquer is a time honored strategy of war.

At any rate, Ford only had 2 unexpected years. I don't see what he could have done but continue most of Nixon's policies.

Of course we could have had Spiro Agnew as president. I suspect we may have been blessed in that respect.